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* RUSSIA. 376 RUSSIA. Ethnology. The Russian Empire is populated mainly by a Slav 5;ioup of the Caucasic stock, be- longing to the Alpine or braohycephalic type. The true Russians constitute nearly tliree-lourths of the pojiiilatiou of Russia in Europe, the rest being Letto-Lithuanians, Poles, Jews, Finns, Turco- Tatars, Mongols, and Germans. The true Kus- sians are divided into three groups: (1) Great Russians or Muscovites, about 00,000,000, occupy the entire centre of European Russia and form two-thirds to three-fourths of the population in the north and east. (2) The Little Russians or MaloRussians, otherwise called Ukrainians or Ruthenians, about 18,000.000, are in the southwest. The Cossacks are Little Russians in speech. They are ,settled in a compact body in Little Russia, wlience they have tlirowu off colonies to the southeast. (3) The White Russians number 5,000,000 in four governments in the west. There are upward of 6,000,000 Russians in Asiatic Rus- sia. See Colored Plate with Europe, People.s of. Other peoples living in the Russian Empire are as follows: Slavic: Poles, about 8.000,000, about three-fourths of them in Poland, the bulk of the remainder being in the western governments of Russia proper; about 200,000 Bulgarians, and a few Czechs and Serbs. Teutonic: Germans, about 2,000,000, mainly in the Baltic Provinces, Poland, and in colonies in South Russia; Swedes, 300.000, mainly in Finland. Finnic: Finns and Karelians, about 2,.'>00,000 in Finland and the neighboring parts of Russia proper ; Esthonians, about 650,000 in the Baltic regions; Mordvins, Votyaks, Tcheremisses, and other kindred peoples scattered over a large area in Northern and East- ern Russia, about 1.500,000; Lapps, in Lapland, and Samoyeds in the extreme northern parts of Russia and Siberia. Lctio-Litliuaninn : Letts and Lithuanians, about 3,500,000, the former in the Baltic region, the latter in the western govern- ments and Poland. Iranian: Armenians, Kurds, and Persians and other tribes, 1,300,000, prin- cipally in the Caucasus. Daco-Roman: Ruma- nians, 1,000,000, in Southwest Russia. Semitic: Jews, about 5,000.000. in Western and South- western Russia and Poland. Caucasus Aborigi- nes: Georgians, Mingrelians, Lesghians, etc. Turco-Tatar: Tatars, Uzbegs, Bashkirs, Kirghiz, Turkomans, etc., in all about 9.000,000. Mongol : Kalmucks, in Russia and Central xsia; Buriats, Tunguses, etc.. in Siberia. The Mongols, not reck- oning the inhabitants in the portion of Man- churia recently occupied by Russia, number less than 1.000,000. Besides these there are in Russia 1,000,000 Europeans of various nationalities and a considerable number of G.ypsies. There is an almost inexhaustible literature on the archicologv', ethnologv*. and languages of Rus- sia. For the general reader it is practically in- accessible, being locked up in the native language. A list of the principal works will l)e found in the supplement to Ripley's Races of Europe. See also: Smirnof, Ethnographic prcJiistorique de la, Russia centrale et du nordest (Moscow, 1802) ; Sergi. "Varieta umane della Russia e del Medi- terraneo" {Atti Soc. Romana. de Antrop., vol. i., 1893, also vol. v., 1897) ; Zeuss, Les peuples de la Riissie (Moscow, 1892) ; Zograf, Les peuples de la Russie (Moscow. 1895) ; Bomnariage, La Russie d'Europe (Brussels. 1903). History. In ancient times the Russian plains were for the most part outside of the known world and were spoken of as inhabited by wild Scythian and Sarmatian tribes and, farther away, in the unknown, by those to whom the ancients gave the name of Hyperboreans. Later the Slavs from the Baltic and the banks of tiie Elbe and the Danube spread over the plains to the east- ward. Their organization w-as tribal and there was among them no capacity for unified systems to moderate their tribal conflicts. There were centres like Novgorod and Kiev that assumed, by the ninth century, a certain importance, but there was no national unity. About the middle of the ninth centurj', a Scandinavian leader, Rurik, came to Novgorod with a band of war- like followers in res|)onse to an invitation to establish order and luiity. From this event the Russian historians date the beginning of the Russian Empire, the foundation of which they place in the year 862. To the Slavs the Scandi- navians (Norsemen) were known as Varangians. According to one theory the followers of Rurik bore the name of Russians, which was engrafted upon the Slavic people in whose nationality they were soon absorbed. Others maintain that the name existed before this time as the designation of the inhabitants of the plains about Kiev. Some of the Varangians went on and established them- selves at Kiev. Oleg (879-912), acting as regent for Igor, son of Rurik, made Kiev the capital of the embryo empire, subduing the neighboring tribes, and even made a successful raid against Constantinople. Igor (912-945) was succeeded by his widow Olga ( 945-957 ), who was baptized in 955 by the Patriarch of Constantinople, and abdicated soon after in favor of her son, Sviatoslaff (957- 972), a warlike pagan, who was treacherously murdered. The principality was then divided among his three sons, and the quarrels usual in such cases followed, continuing till Vladimir the Great (980-1015), the youngest son, became sole ruler. The Varangians now became amalgamated definitely with the Slavic race. Vladimir's suc- cessful wars extended the boundaries of Russia to Lake Ilmen on the north, to the mouth of the Oka on the east, to the falls of the Dnieper on the south, and to the sources of the Vistula on the west. He became a convert to Greek Christian- ity, and in 988 was baptized with his followers. The nation soon adopted its ruler's religion and a metropolitan, subject to the Patriarch of Con- stantinople, was established at Kiev. Vladimir fol- lowed the evil example of his father in dividing his dominions. After his death dissensions broke out among his sons. For .a time Sviatopulk (1015-19) ruled as Grand Prince of Kiev, but he was overthrown by his brother, Yaroslafif, who held the mastery over Kiev till his death in 1054. L'nder this prince the first code of Rus- sian laws, the RusJtaija Pravda, was compiled. Yaroslaff's sons shared the principality among them. Each of these princes in turn divided his portion of territory among his sons, till the realm became an agglomeration of petty States. A state of anarchy, confusion, and petty warfare was per- petuated and ceased only after a lapse of four centuries. The principal subdivisions of Russia during this period were : Susdal. in the upper and cen- tral parts of the basin of the Volga, from which, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, grew the principalities of Tver, Rostov, and Vladimir; Tchernigov and Seversk, wdiich occupied the